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LEWISTOWN -- Drake Goss doesn't consider himself a 'Deadhead,' but the Mifflin County High School junior doesn't mind a little "Shakedown Street" or "Fire on the Mountain" every now and then.
If anything, the legendary Grateful Dead's music served as an inspiration for a project -- a leather guitar strap -- for his Wearables Arts class at school.
Of course, the Grateful Dead was an American rock band, known for their eclectic style that fused elements of rock, blues, jazz, folk, country, bluegrass, rock 'n roll, gospel, reggae and world music with psychedelia.
"I took a trip last summer to Europe, and right after I got back, I went to a Grateful Dead tribute music festival," the 17-year-old Goss recalled. "I don't consider myself a Deadhead. I do like bluegrass and folk music. They had a lot of folk music stuff, and I like to listen to a lot of metal music. I have a number of acoustic guitars."
When it came time to select a class project, Goss opted to craft a strap for one of his guitars out of an ordinary strip of leather. It took Goss about two weeks to finish, starting with concept to finish.
"Drake always goes above and beyond on his projects, said art teacher Sara Sutton. "He comes up with these creative ideas and I always know they will be extremely interesting and well crafted. I am excited to see what else he creates this semester."
While trying to figure out a concept, Goss -- like many other students -- started out with a simple idea and made leather cuffs. "I did it just to get an idea for the leather, and I made a punk rock style cuff with studs and long spikes," Goss explained.
Goss wasn't totally sold with the result, so he went back to the drawing board. He asked Sutton for the longest piece of leather she had.
When she reappeared with a long spool of leather, he cut off a long strip and used that for his guitar strap.
"It was genuine leather, but there was just a thin strip of it," Goss explained. "I burned and stained it to make it how it is today."
The treatment process darkened the leather, which initially was much lighter.
Before working with leather, Goss took a piece of graph paper and sketched out his design, which included a mountain range, valleys and a sunrise, which cast shadows on the mountains.
"I just cut it (strip of leather), then sketched the design on with a lead pencil," Goss said, explaining the production process. "From there, I burned it on, stained it and conditioned it."
For the finishing touches, Goss used a leather hole punch to attach the strap to his guitar. He had to cut it slightly to make it fit the stud on his guitar.
Goss, who is in a band with classmates, has been playing the guitar for about three years.
The strap turned out as he had hoped, and he was pleased with the results of his first wearable arts class project.
"I've never made anything before I can wear," Goss said. "I enjoyed it."